Spoils of Desert Battle

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 17, 21 January 1941, Page 5

Spoils of Desert Battle

Scene After Sidi Barrani NEW ZEALANDERS’ PART Writing in an Italian field post office, with an Italian fountain pen on Italian notepaper, Sapper C. J. Edwards, of the N.Z.E.F., in a letter gives some interesting “shots" of the battlefield after the first attack by the Army of the Nile on Sidi Barrani and Solium:— ‘ ‘ The Italians live very differently from us and just seem to scratch a bit of a hole in the ground, put their ground sheet over it and crawl in. They do not live in nearly the comfort that we do, although from signs about it seems pretty evident that they were well supplied with food. I came across on Italian cookhouse in my rambling to-day. It was a hole about six yards square with a fireplace in one corner and on it was a huge pot filled with a stew of some sort and there was also a pot containing dried peas all ready to cook. Apparently they were just taken by surprise and didn’t have time to do anything but surrendered. . . .

“Just by the way, they also left lots of Chianti wine behind—l didn’t care for it; it tastes just like very sour vinegar, and is terrifically potent, as many of our lads havp found out (to their sorrow the next day). . . . Every Italian soldier seemed to have a very considerable supply of cigarettes, and as it was all just abandoned, there are literally million® of them around, just for the taking. They are very mild and are something like American cigarettes, although I can’t say I care for them very much. “ There are thousands of Italian rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition. One typo of rifle they use is a carbine which is only half the size and Weight of our service rifle and gives a much inferior performance to ours. On this rifle the bayonet is attached and folds back against the barrel, while the bayonet itself is a three-cornered affair, us I say, much inferior to our equipment. Gold Braid—Dress Swords. “And the thing which struck ma very forcibly was the fact that their equipment is by no means uniform. Whereas everyone in the British Army has exactly the same stuff, the Italian Army has many varying types of the same article. The Libyans appeared to be fairly poorly clothed, but this is not the case with the Italians. in the case of their n.c.o.’s, and particularly the officers, their uniforms are magnificent. The material is excellent and they appear to be tailor made. They are absolutely covered with gold braid and- they certainly make a great show. Making a great show seems to be about all they are capable of, because it has been proved both in Greece and in the Western Desert that they are pretty poor scrappers. I have seen magnificent dress swords taken from their dug-outs —heaven knows what their owners intended to do with them in the Desert. “After two days in the battlefields I am now in a position to tell you more in detail. The first place I visited wes an Italian hospital, and only the word magnificent will describe it. The tents the most wonderful I have ever sean.

. . . The sheets and blankets had just been thrown aside as though the patients had just vacated them and beat a hasty retreat as the British forces approached the hospital. In one tent we found their mess utensils ail filled with food—apparently they were just in the process of eating when the fatal blow fell upon them. Their operating theatre was intact and was full of valuable equipment, including a very elaborate set of acetylene lighting. Fortunately all the equipment fell into the hands of the Medical Corps and no doubt they will make good use of it. Enemy's Food Excellent “We came across several Italian food dumps, and, of course, we had to have I a good look at these. One in particular was quite interesting and contained a terrific amount of stuff all of which can be used in the British Army. There was lime juice, mineral water (excellent stuff, too), salmon, bully beef, chests of tea, cases of ground coffee, tomato paste, macaroni, etc. Their salmon is a kind of tunny in olive oil and is very nice indeed. Their bully beef is a kind of steak and quite pleasing to the palate, while the tomato paste makes spaghetti very easy to cat. There’s not the slightest doubt that his food was very, very good, although we did not find any fresh meat and vegetables, but there were stacks of oranges and lemons. There were big dumps of cereals, too, and it would appear that he goes in for that type of food in a big way. “On the hillside commanding a good deal of surrounding countryside the Italians had endeavoured to make a Stand. There were between 30 and 40 field guns and literally hundreds of machine-guns, and as there were 5500 prisoners taken from this place and all had thrown their rifles away you can imagine just how many rifles there were around. Apparently every Italian soldier carried several hand grenades, and there were thousands and thousands just lying around—they make an awful row but so very little damage as far as we could see. “In the flood we had some time ago I lost, among other things, my pyjamas, arui this proved to be my chance to replace them. Just to make sure, I got hold of three pairs so they should see me through for a while. One pair is just magnificent, and they will sure rock the boys. They are pale cream with a blue edging, and on the pockets is a dragon (very flash) worked in blue. Incidentally they are silk, so now I consider myself to be one of the best 'dressed men in the Western Desert. A Road Misnamed. “You will know from the papers that from Hidi Barrani to Solium the Italians had constructed a metal road .with plenty of width and beautifully curved and banked as it sweeps across the sandy Avast es. Apparently they were short of roacl ibitumen, ae none

of it is sealed. The Italian, you know, is given to making flowery speeches, and gets all worked up over nothing, and to please his pride he called the road ‘Dolla Vittoria,’ which means ‘The Road to Victory.’ Unfortunately for him it turned out to be the Road of Retreat, and he has left millions of pounds’ worth of material lying about the place.

“You wi'll probably have read sJbout a number of our tanks catching a Whole Italian division of 14,000 men on the march. From my own observation the column of marching men covered about five to seven miles of road and were caught like rate in a trap when our tanks swept over the hill dominating the road, and the Italians did the only thing possible and surrendered promptly. A division, ot course, covers every branch of the army, and the scene on that road ib indescribable. There are lorries (big and small), motor-cycles, held guns (in moet cases with the breech cot ere still on them), anti-t&nk guns, machineguns, A.A. guns, rifles, hand grenade* by the thousands, and many technical tractors containing marvellous engineering equipment, in addition to all this, the equipment (personul, I mean) is Uttered all round the road, and believe me, 14,000 men can make a very large mess.

“To sum up, my impression is very difficult. Suffice it to say that we covered 80 miles each way and duriqg the whole of that time 1 don’t think at any period we were out of sight of abandoned Italian material. That, 1 know, sounds ridiculous, but it is just ihe plain and utter truth.

* 1 The Italians in every place aa o went had ripped down the English and Arabic signs and replaced them with Italian ones, and from places he had built, and from stores and dumps that he had created, it is perfectly obvious CA'en to a layman like myself, that he was in Egypt to stay; and just as obviously it never entered his head that he would ever be pushed out. Buildings everywhere were just plastered with signs, and a frequent one was ‘Viva il Duce’ —they were certainly well versed in the Fascist ideas, but either their hearts were not in the war or they have not got the spirit to fight. “We even eat our meals (a good deal of which are Italian) on plates which Musso’s boys very thoughtfully left behind, while I have a iirst-class acetylene lamp which is now doing excellent service. Three hundred yard* from here are two Q.M. stores containing enough stationery to keep the G.P.O. in Wellington going for many months. ... All the lads are very busy writing at the moment, and all ar# smoking Italian cigars which are very nice. Of course, everyone is armed to the teeth with Italian revolvers and automatics, and to-day we had a spot of revolver practice. Another of the lads is busy trying ( unsuccessfully from ills language) to sharpen a cut-throat razor he picked up. As a matter of fact, the whole place is like a second-hand shop.

“Bad luck I haven't a girl friend in Italy to write to, as I’ve got a lot of Italian stamps. They look nice and interesting, but they're just like Musee's Army—very pretty and not much »ae."